A former employee of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity took part in a news conference today to say she was fired in 2012 after reporting wrongdoing involving overpayments in unemployment claims.

A former employee of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity took part in a news conference today to say she was fired in 2012 after reporting wrongdoing involving overpayments in unemployment claims.

Dianne Parcell, a former program manager in Benefit Payment Control for the DEO, filed a whistle-blower notice Aug. 21, 2012, claiming the agency was improperly referring to collection agencies people who were wrongly paid unemployment benefits.

Parcell found nearly 100 cases in which the state couldn't legally collect the money for numerous reasons, including death, bankruptcy or a run in the statute of limitations. She became aware of the matter after one such person demanded $100,000 from the state and later settled.

Attorneys for Parcell, Keisha Rice and Patrick Frank of Tallahassee, said she was placed on administrative leave after she filed the whistle-blower notice and was fired Oct. 19, 2012.

After she brought a whistle-blower claim against DEO, a Leon County jury in April awarded her $53,000 in damages. She later negotiated a settlement with DEO for an additional amount of roughly $196,000, Frank said.

Parcell said DEO broke the law when it fired her after she became a whistle-blower. She also said the Governor's Office did nothing to help after she brought it to their attention.

"We had no interest from the Governor's Office, no response, no help, no assistance," she said. "And that was a real eye-opener. There really is no place for state workers to go when they have concerns about wrongdoing. You're pretty much on your own."

Parcell discussed the case, with her attorneys at her side, during a news conference outside her Jefferson County home. The event was organized by Kevin Cate, a spokesman and adviser for former Gov. Charlie Crist, who is running for governor as a Democrat against Gov. Rick Scott.

Frank denied that the case was being made public now because of the governor's race.

"We didn't coordinate with the Crist campaign," he said. "We retained the services of someone who also works for the Crist campaign."

A news release from Cate's firm, Kevin Cate Communications, says that Scott's administration has exposed the state to a $1.9-billion liability because around 19,000 Floridians had been referred to collection agencies and each could seek compensation of $100,000. The release says that the 19,000 people could have compromised credit scores that could make it harder for people to buy homes or cars or secure other loans.

"Florida's government has over 150,000 employees – and, in a system that large, there are always bound to be employee conflicts," said Greg Blair, a spokesman for the campaign. "But in typical trial lawyer fashion, Charlie Crist and his campaign are doing what they're good at – using lawsuits for partisan political purposes."